North Harbour Hockey Stadium

The relocated North Harbour Hockey (NHH) facility occupies the former, underutilised Rosedale Park and grazing paddocks on Bush Road, a site previously used by Harbour BMX and Rosedale Pony Club. These clubs were relocated to new facilities as part of a shuffle of sporting codes across the North Harbour area. The new site allowed access and upgrading to an existing NHH hockey pitch across from Alexandra Stream. The redevelopment also allowed for the expansion of the NHH hockey facilities to meet the future community and international hosting needs.

The new location creates a boundary between the Rosedale Industrial Estate and wider park facilities, plus provides multiple transportation links for regional sporting visitors.

The strict standards of the Global Elite international competition require sites to be orientated along a north/south axis. The Hockey facility location is bordered by Alexandra Stream to the East & Western side by Bush Road constraining the site and requiring careful planning to accommodate four pitches, clubroom and amenities, parking spaces, safe pedestrian access and pitch irrigation services.

Due to the fluctuating number of spectators the facilities needed to incorporate temporary seating for 5000 during international competitions, and 10,000 spectators during the Commonwealth Games or World Cup events. In addition, ground floor under-croft spaces allow for future growth without disruption to the current building. This spatial agility was a key but challenging requirement of the brief.

North Harbour Hockey were required to relocate due to SH1 motorway updates. The move offered an opportunity to rationalise facilities, facilitate future growth, and meet International Hockey Federation (FIH) Global Elite standards for hosting international events.

Pou Whenua are located on the approach to the site, signifying the meeting of mana whenua and hockey in the common pursuit of serving the wider community. The new clubroom with its distinctive bold, muscular roofline creates a central hub for athletes, spectators, and events. Split entry allows athletes access to ground floor changing facilities, while the main stairs lead to a north viewing deck for spectators. Multifunctional interior spaces are designed to adapt, enabling capacity for the club to host seminars and events.

The clubroom room building was constructed concurrently with the pitch-forming works, which required thorough construction planning to sequence the overlapping construction works.

The robust concrete and block construction of the ground floor creates spacious yet utilitarian changing facilities. First floor construction includes steel portal frames to support the shaped roof, providing centreline camera and commentary positions, as well as curtainwall glazing for game play viewing.

The roof is serrated at key points with roof lights to allow for natural light, actuator-controlled windows to ventilate the building interior through a stack effect. This effect is further enhanced by room level window ventilation along each building face.

The requirements of the International Hockey Federation necessitated a north/south building axis with large glazing to the east and west facades providing views of the main pitches. Careful consideration was given to the large façade manifestations, leading to double glazing and grey tinted exterior glass panels to reduce solar gain and limit noise spill during night-time clubroom events. The roof structure has been efficiently designed for larger spans, with externally high insulated roofing panels clad in a light coloured TPO membrane to reflect more sunlight than traditional dark coloured membrane systems. The ground floor has been constructed in concrete block, left exposed and painted with linings only to wet areas. Pitch irrigation requirements were addressed by on-site water collection and retention.